Click Here To Get Organized and Relax.
Today I’d like you to walk around your house like you are a visitor. Go to each door and peek in like you’re getting a tour of the house. How does your home feel? Does it feel comfortable? Is it embarrassing? Do you have white walls or warm, inviting colors on the walls? Is there a comfortable amount of clutter or is the clutter piling up?
Then, I want you to sit down and write out how you would like your house to look and how you would like your house to feel. Do you want it to feel cozy and inviting? Do you want it to feel neat and calm? Do you want to have systems in place to find things easily? Do you want to have guests over? Do you want your home to feel like an oasis after a long day at work?
Now use this list as your motivation to make change happen! Keep this list as motivation as your energy levels lag over time. Because you can make things happen! You can start working on your home one room at a time and just one space at a time. You can do it for 1 hour, you can do it for 15 minutes, whatever you have in you!
If you are feeling overwhelmed, please click on my post about organizing through a toilet paper tube. Sound weird? Then check it out! 
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, house, Motivational Monday
Monday Mantra for Women: “I will foster my relationship with my significant other by showing appreciation for them and what they add to my life because taking someone for granted never ends well.”
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Monday Mantra for Women, Women
What do you do when you get married as an adult and you both have dishes, towels, bedding, pots and pans? You “purge and you merge.” Recently, I’ve had the exciting opportunity to work with a client who was marrying another client of mine. We had to go through the closet to make space for a second wardrobe before the big day. How fun for me to work separately with each client in their own home only to work with them again in one home!
Coming together under one roof can be both exciting and a bit stressful. Here are 6 organizing tips to merge two households into one to make the transition easier!
Organizing Tip #1 Decide where you will live.
Are one of you moving into an existing residence or are you both moving into a new location altogether?
Organizing Tip #2 Create a schedule.
Map out a schedule of what needs to be done prior to your merge. Do you need to empty a home for a sale? Do you need to give notice to a landlord? Do you need to purchase moving boxes? Do you need to hire a a property management company to rent one home?
Making a schedule with due dates will break a big project down into little projects.
Organizing Tip #3 Purge according to your space allowance.
Are you moving to a bigger home or a smaller home? Do you have a lot of storage or little, bitty closets? This is going to have a major impact on what you keep and what you let go. Ideally, you will make everything fit into your existing space. Worse case scenario, you will have to rent space in a storage facility. If this is the case, you will have to plan out what will live in the home with you and what will be living in storage, clearly labeled of course.
Organizing Tip #4 Purge alone.
You can do some of this on your own before doing it together. I’m sure you can go through your home, room by room and part with the obvious things that you no longer need, use or love. If you can both do that on your own, you will have made a big dent before the next step.
Organizing Tip #5 Purge together.
Now that you’ve both let go on your own, it’s time to come together and take a cold hard look at duplicates. Keep this motto in mind, “Keep the best and part with the rest.” You are both going to have towels, so go through the towels and get it down to the 10 best or whatever number works for you. You will both have dishes, now is the time to pick the dishes you can both live with. You will both have bed sheets, now is the time to pick the sets that will fit your bed and are in the best condition. Be careful of each person’s feelings during this process.
Organizing Tip #6 Merge!
Yeah, it’s time to bring it altogether and create your home, congratulations! As you begin putting things away you may find you still have too much. At this point, you must decide to either let some more stuff go or increase your storage space. Really look hard for usable storage, on doors, on hooks, adding extra shelves, overhead storage and under the bed.
Congratulations and best wishes as you enjoy living together under one roof!
Tags: 6 Organizing Tips to Merge Two Households into One, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organizing tips, purge and merge
Now, there’s a challenge and a half! Whether I’m teaching a class or working with a couple in their home, it’s always the same, one person wants to keep stuff and one wants to let go of stuff. Or, at the very least, they have different styles of tackling what to keep and what to let go. And that’s life! Opposites attract right? Riiiiiight.
It may never be ‘perfect’ but hey, that’s true of relationships right? Riiiight. Today we can at least look at 6 organizing tips to encourage your better half to let stuff go and let you run with it and see what happens! Comments to the post are welcome
Organizing Tip #1: Communicate
Look at the space that you want to organize and talk about what you would both like to see in that space and how you would like to use it. You must both be clear on the vision before you can dig in and decide what should stay and what should go.
Make sure you write down your plan to avoid confusion or arguing while you’re in the middle of the organizing process.
Organizing Tip #2: Be prepared to compromise
Maybe your vision for the space and your spouse’s vision for the space aren’t going match. More communication will be needed so you can figure out a compromise that you can both live with. Remember, you love each other (even today)!
Organizing Tip #3: Start making decisions on what should stay and what should go according to your plan for the space.
Questions you can ask each other:
1) What’s the worst thing that will happen if we let this go, can we get a replacement if we really miss it? Sure, it’s easy to get a new Monopoly game, sleeping bag, vase, serving tray, fishing pole, etc.
2) Does this fit into our lifestyle now?
- Is it a hobby you are still active in or did you give it up 10 years ago?
- Do you have a way to watch or listen to it? Is it on a reel-to-reel, cassette tape, Beta, record? Consider switching it over to a modern way of watching or listening to it.
- Do you really love it and use it?
- Will keeping it help you reach your goals for the space?
Organizing Tip #4: We’re back to compromise.
Let’s say your spouse wants to keep something that you think they should get rid of.. Oh yes, it happens! Remember, there may be a sentimental reason they want to keep it and no amount of reason will make them get rid of it, at least not at this point. Maybe if you revisit it in 6 months or a year they will be ready.
I ask: “Is there space to support it?” If you have a way to store it and it’s not causing a problem then you should probably let it stay or at least find a new place to store it to preserve your current goal for the space you’re working on.
Organizing Tip#5: Your Space/My Space
Realize that you may just have to have some spaces that are yours to do with as you wish and your better half may have to have theirs to do as they wish. Maybe your side of the closet is neat as a pin and their side is a sloppy mess. It’s hard to look at, but at least you can have your stuff the way you want it. You can’t control everything.
Organizing Tip #6: Read the book, “When You Live with A Messie,” by Sandra Felton.
I know this can be a challenge, so have patience and remember why you love this person oh so much!
Tags: 6 Organizing Tips to Encourage Your Better Half to Let Stuff Go, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organize, organizing process, organizing tips
Monday Mantra for Women: “I won’t feel guilty for doing something nice for myself. If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy so I’m really doing everyone a favor!”
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Monday Mantra for Women, Women
Can women be crazy-busy and still get a pedicure too? YES! ! I know it can be a real challenge to get everything done each day: work, make dinner, wash clothes, make the bed and yet we’re still supposed to get some “me” time in? How do we exercise, get a cute haircut and keep our toes flip flop-worthy?? Today I’ll share 4 ways that you can do what you gotta do, plus some pampering too:
Me Time Tip #1: Make a list of the things that you would love to be able to do for yourself so it’s very clear.
Haircut: Only need to do that about once every other month. Pedicure: Can probably get away with once a month. Acrylic Nails: That’s going to be about an every 2 week commitment. Exercise: Several days a week or maybe even every day. Read a Book: Possibly every night which could mean curbing a TV habit to encourage a book habit.
Knowing what’s important to you and how long each activity will take will help you plan your time.
Me Time Tip #2: Make a list of things you can let go to create more time for you.
So, let’s say it’s time for a haircut and you work full-time so the only time for a haircut is after work. Well, that’s a great night to get take out, have hubby cook, use the crock pot or have left-overs so you can take 30 minutes at the salon and knock off 30 minutes in the kitchen. Does the bed really have to be made? Can you blow off cleaning the kitchen for one night and do double duty in the kitchen the next day? Do you really have to drive to the grocery store for shopping or can you sit at your computer while dinner cooks and order from a delivery service?
Start thinking about what you can let go or substitute, at least on the days that you want to do something nice for yourself.
Me Time Tip #3: Delegate, then celebrate yourself.
There must be a few tasks that you do that someone else can do just as well or at least good enough (you may have to lower your standards a little). I know it’s really easy for us to take on everything ourselves, often thinking it’s just faster to do it ourselves, but it still takes our time. It’s OK to have kids fold laundry or clean out the dishwasher and it’s OK for husbands to run some errands. Don’t be afraid to take some tasks off your plate. If you have the budget for it, hire help and don’t feel guilty about it! I wrote a post on just this topic, so I’ll include the link here. When I was a teenager, my neighbor hired me to clean her house and babysit, so it can be done on a budget too!
Me Time Tip #4: Kick guilt to the curb.
Repeat after me: “I will not feel guilty for taking time for myself and I will not feel guilty for taking care of myself.” If you don’t do it who will? If you get burned out and fall apart, everyone’s going to have to step up and help anyway, so you might as well take the time and get a little bit of help and take care of yourself now. Consider it preventative maintenance.
For more tips on maintaining life balance when you don’t have enough hours in the day, please read more here!
Tags: balance, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, How You Can Make Time for a Pedi (and other girly stuff), tips on maintaining life balance when you don't have enough hours in the day, Women
I’m not really so sure that there’s actually an upside to disorganization, so today I’m going to talk about what I do know: 3 downsides to disorganization.
Downside #1: It’s more difficult to clean your home when the counters, tables and floors are covered. Recently, I’ve been working with multiple clients to clear the clutter so they can bring in a housekeeping service. It will take the housekeepers much longer to do their job if they have constantly move clutter before they can dust & mop. It will take you much longer to dust and mop too!
Downside #2: Disorganization makes everything take longer. A disorganized & chaotic kitchen can make it more difficult and time-consuming to make meals. A cluttered laundry room can make it take longer to wash, dry and iron (do people still iron?) your clothes. A disorganized office can make it take longer to find what you need, cause you to dig for papers you want to read and can cause you to misplace and pay bills late.
Downside #3: Disorganization brings on negative feelings, not positive. No one I’ve worked with so far has been jumping up and down with excitement to show me their clutter. These are the areas people want to shut the door on. These are the areas of the home that people want to run and hide from (of course I say, BRING IT!). What I find disorganization can bring on is family discord, embarrassment, depression, overwhelm, stress and anger. Who needs all of that negativity? No way, we don’t need it!
If you’re tired of clutter and you’re ready to let it go and reach for the upside, my step-by-step decluttering video may just be the ticket to show you the way!
Tags: 3 downsides to disorganization, decluttering video, disorganization, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog
Thank you to Laura Lozano who asked for some organizing tips on facebook and then shared her success in decluttering the top of her mini fridge, way to go Laura!!
Photo Courtesy of Laura Lozano
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog
Monday Mantra for Women: “I will foster relationships in my life that are mutually beneficial vs. one-sided.” Repeat.
Tags: DIY organization, diy organization blog, home, Monday Mantra for Women. home organization, Women
Monday Mantra for Women: “I will differentiate between my needs & my wants. I will make sure my needs are met before I fulfill my wants.”
Tags: Balance Family, Work, Self, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Monday Mantra for Women
